Lenten Series on Spiritual Practice: Hospitality 3/4/12

Lenten Worship Series Week 2:  Hospitality in a Multi-Faith World

Rev. Lee Ann Bryce

Community Christian Church

March 4, 2012

When a stranger lives with you in your land, don’t take advantage of him.  Treat the stranger the same as family.  Love him like one of your own.  Remember that you were once strangers in Egypt.  I am God, your God.                                                                                                Leviticus 19:33-34

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.                                                                       Romans 12:9-13

(“Hospitality is Salvation” video by Diana Butler Bass.  This short video may be viewed at theworkofthepeople.com.)

Prior to watching this video by Diana Butler Bass, if I were to have asked you the path to salvation, I wonder if many of us, including myself, would have said that the definition of salvation is hospitality.  Salvation is loaded word for Christians.  It conjures up the image of someone knocking on the door with little pamphlets asking if you’ve been “saved” (or does that only happen in Texas?)  Among our conservative Christian friends, and perhaps for some here, salvation likely has something to do with going to heaven when we die. 

But Diana Butler Bass reframes for us the concept of salvation.  In his book, Speaking Christian:  Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power and How They Can Be Restored, Marcus Borg argues that though we commonly associate salvation with what happens after we die, when the Bible speaks about salvation, it is seldom about an afterlife (p. 39).  Salvation, as it is used in the Bible, is almost always about personal transformation of ourselves and of the world, right here, right now.  And I think we all yearn for this kind of salvation. 

Most of us yearn for personal transformation – for a fuller connection to what is, for liberation from all that keeps us in bondage, for wholeness, for the healing of our pain.  And don’t we yearn for a world that is a better place?  We may have disagreements about how a better world can be brought about.  But most of yearn for a better world, for ourselves, our children and grandchildren for all the people who will come after us. 

This yearning for transformation is shared between all the world’s major faith traditions.  And this commonality is what I’d like to focus on today.  How are Christians to practice hospitality in an interfaith world?  How do Christians relate hospitably to people who follow other religious paths?  If Diane Butler Bass is right and salvation is hospitality, then it is also true that the salvation of the church, of our faith, is in learning how to be hospitable.

The Bible can be described as having a grand progression of hospitality, of estrangement to welcome.    There are certainly critical points in the narrative of our faith where welcoming the stranger turns out to be a real fork in the road.   Abraham and Sarah,  extending hospitality to the strangers who wind up being God’s representatives who have come to deliver the good news that a child will be given to them who will fulfill God’s promises to the Hebrew people. 

And in the New Testament we find a parallel in the story of the Emmaus Road.  Following the crucifixion, the broken-hearted disciples welcome a stranger to dinner and when the stranger breaks the bread, they realize that it is Jesus.  He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.  Time and time again, our faith has survived because our forebears chose a path of hospitality and welcome, rather than exclusion and judgment.

In case you haven’t noticed, the future of mainstream Christianity, is up in the air.  Millions of people across the world have rejected the faith we practice.  Maybe you’re someone who has toyed with the idea of giving up on the church.  There have been times in my life when I confess that I have.  The form of Christianity that has been, too often, imperialistic, judgmental, and even violent has been rejected.  And until Diana Butler Bass said it in today’s video, I never considered the widespread rejection of Christianity to be a hopeful sign but now I recognize it as one.  That rejection shows that there is indeed a deep longing for a God of love and a church that practices true hospitality.  People are asking for something better, more authentic, more Jesus-y, than what the church has typically offered.  The challenge for the church then is to embrace that longing and to set hospitality as our highest goal.

I think we understand what it means to welcome the poor, the meek, the vulnerable in our society.  We don’t always succeed in doing it, mind you, but in theory we understand that God calls the church to welcome the last and the least.  Perhaps it’s a bit more confusing to know how Christians are to relate to members of other faith traditions or no faith tradition.  We know what we’re not supposed to do.  We’re not supposed to judge, but should we engage in dialogue?  And when we do, what should be the nature of that dialogue?  Should we witness about our faith?  We know we shouldn’t condemn, but if we affirm the truth found in another tradition, does it lessen the claims of truth we make?  How are Christians to be hospitable in a multifaith world?

To be hospitable, we must first acknowledge that religious pluralism is a natural condition of our world.  And as Christians, we can absolutely celebrate that diversity!  Spirit speaks in many languages and the spiritual practice of hospitality helps us to receive more messages of that expression.  There are some conditions that we should practice in speaking with members of another faith tradition if we are to be hospitable.  The first condition is that dialogue with friends from other faiths should be without any ulterior motive.  In the past, the motive for Christians to engage in dialogue has been either because we want to convert the other person or to provide a forum for Christians to demonstrate the supposed superiority of our own positions.  This kind of attitude has got to go!  Hospitable interreligious dialogue seeks to engage respectfully and not to manipulate or coerce. 

And so Christians must come to the table with essential openness.  This openness involves deep listening, trying to understand not only what the other says, but also what they mean, the reality they’re trying to convey.  We listen, not looking for flaws but listening for truth as the other understands it.  We listen, seeking to understand what the other is.  It is imperative that other religious traditions are taken seriously for what they are in and of themselves.  This means, for example, not assuming that another faith is the rough equivalent of our own. 

In hospitable dialogue, differences are not the enemy.  Difference can be appreciated because difference can challenge us and cause us to rethink our own assumptions.  It is in the respectful exploration of difference that a deeper awareness of our own tradition can emerge.  We can discover similarities that can teach us much about what may be universal to religious paths.  We often make the mistake of avoiding difference or playing it down.  It is often the difference that makes the dialogue particularly fruitful.

And last, hospitable interreligious dialogue means avoiding hasty assumptions about the other.  We must keep in mind our need to overgeneralize or categorize the religious practice of another.  Isn’t it tempting to ask questions like, What are the three things that all Muslims (Buddhists, Hindis, etc) believe?  Interreligous dialogue is holy ground with much mystery and we must be patient and walk with humility and reverence.

If the church is to survive, it will practice radical hospitality in our multifaith world.  Hospitality is our salvation.  We must be willing to let go of the superiority complex so often demonstrated by Christians and truly look at the other as equal.  If we welcome the stranger with openness and respect, then the  stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. 

Hospitality is salvation.  And it has never been more important that Christians recognize this and learn how to practice true hospitality.  Amen.